Internet based communications frequently involve a client application executing on a user's computer interacting with an application executing on a remote server. One common example is a user accessing a remote website, which involves using a suite of web-based protocols. These web-based protocols can also be used for accessing web-based services hosted by servers, but which do not involve accessing a website.
The ubiquitous access afforded by the Internet also affords the possibility of malicious intervention by other users. Various methods are known for a nefarious entity (termed an “attacker” herein) to initiate attacks over the Internet. An attacker may send a virus to infect a computer, copy or delete data from a computer, or otherwise obtain information stored in a computer. The computer may be the client computer or the server computer. Other attacks may slow down the processing capabilities of the computer or otherwise create malicious actions.
One form of attack involves the attacker using malicious Javascript® code on a web page to cause the client computer to send a legitimate message to a legitimate website. The user may be a customer of the business operating the website, and the website itself is what it purports to be. The message sent from the user's computer to the website is, by itself, conventional in form. In other words, the website does not detect any abnormal formatting or requests in the received message. However, the user may not have known that the message to the website was sent. The malicious action is causing the client computer to send the message to the website. The message could have instructed the website, for example, to delete user files, delete information at the website, or transfer money out of the user's account. This presumes that the web server provides document management services, website hosting services, or banking services, respectively.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.